I’ve recently discovered that HBO has made a television series of George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones book, the first one in the series of The Song of Ice and Fire. Needless to say, I cannot contain my excitement when I discovered (after some careful ferreting) that it’s got a very good cast. (Disappointingly, one of my favorite actresses, Jennifer Ehle, was set to star in it, but had to withdraw due to unreleased reasons). Names like Sean Bean, (Boromir from Lord of the Rings), Lena Headley (Sarah Connor from the Terminator Chronicles) and Peter Dinklage (Trumpkin the dwarf in Prince Caspian) popped up and even now I’m grinning because Peter Dinklage had been the ‘face’ that I had used when thinking of Tyrion Lannister, the character he is set to play.
I suspect that HBO has spared no expenses, and already – Game of Thrones is labeled as the most anticipated television show of 2011. To me, it comes as a welcome relief from the vampire and werewolf craze our world has been caught up in. I never got into the Twilight Saga and urban fantasy is (sadly) a bit of a same old, same old concept (vampire meets girl, vampire likes girl, girl likes other vampire, magic in between and sex and biting. And biting during sex.…) I’ve been absolutely yearning for real fantasy (one of the reason I’ve started my reread of Robert Jordan’s Epic Wheel of Time series and my almost obsessive hunt for Maggie Furey’s Artifacts of Power), the genre which I have dedicated more than fifteen years of my life to.
Magic, swords, dragons and kings somehow never get old. Certainly not as old as sulky teen vampires…
So, I am awaiting with much anticipation the release of this series on South Africa’s screens. I realize that it might take some time for it to get here, but – I can wait.
Because Winter is Coming.
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